About Fingertips

Fingertips is a health and wellness blog written by a licensed and practicing physical therapist and former massage therapist, and offers tips, pointers and information about improved health and wellness. Physical therapy and massage therapy news and insights are also covered.

Boilerplate

January 26, 2005

Sometimes solutions to long-standing problems drop from the sky in an inspired manner. My visceral manipulation class taught us many techniques for addressing bladder tension, one of which was working to soften the obturator externus muscle to allow for full mobility of the pelvic floor muscles.

Obturator externus and internus attach to the greater trochanter. A long-time client has recurrent hip pain associated with the muscular attachments at the greater trochanter of the hip. I decided to release obturator externus in hopes that it would address this protracted hip discomfort.

Accessing the obturator externus requires thorough explanation because we are working in the groin just posterior to the gracilis next to the ischial tuberosity of the pelvis. I keep my clients in control of the work, because of its proximity to their private anatomy, by asking them to cover it or move it aside with their hand. With gentle thumb pressure directed toward the navel, I wait until the muscle softens, thereby signaling the end of our work.

My client, I am told after the session, had hernia surgery that had succumb to a staph infection which required the insertion of mesh sheet in the abdomen to allow the flesh a matrix to regrow to. Efficient evacuation of the bladder had been compromised by this surgery and they expressed optimism that this work would help with a problem I was not aware they had.